|
Blast of Silence - Criterion Collection
|
Click image
for larger view
|
List Price: $29.95
Now Only: $17.99
10 Used
from $16.02
37 New
from $15.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Swift, brutal, and black-hearted, Allen Baron s New York City noir Blast of Silence is a sensational surprise. This low-budget, carefully crafted portrait of a hit man on assignment in Manhattan during Christmastime follows its stripped-down narrative with mechanical precision, yet also with an eye and ear for the oddball idiosyncrasies of urban living and the imposing beauty of the city s locations. At once visually ragged and artfully composed, and featuring rough, poetic narration by Lionel Stander, Blast of Silence is a stylish triumph.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
New, restored digital transfer
Requiem for a Killer: The Making of Blast of Silence (2007)
Rare on-set Polaroids
Locations revisited in 2008
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by film critic Terrence Rafferty and a four-page graphic-novel adaptation of the film by award-winning artist Sean Phillips
(Criminal, Sleeper, Batman: Jekyll & Hyde)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Somewhere between film noir and The Sopranos lies Blast of Silence, a concise, compelling psychological portrait of a low-level hit-man, shot in 1961 on a shoestring budget with New York City grit. This is the sort of movie, unique but out of sync with its time, that Criterion practically exists to rescue. Accompanied by an avant-jazz soundtrack and hard-boiled Beat narration from the gloriously gravel-voiced Lionel Stander, the blue-collar assassin wanders through the city at Christmastime, revolted by human contact but sucker enough to think a girl he once knew might redeem him. Writer/director Allen Baron stepped into the lead role when he lost Peter Falk; while he's certainly not as expressive an actor, his face has an uncomfortable mixture of yearning and defensiveness that suits the character to a T. Stylishly framed images and sharp, staccato editing, combined with the almost documentary feel of the performances and settings, wrap the entire movie in an alienated tension. This being a Criterion release, it's got fantastic extras: A relaxed interview with the chatty, garrulous Baron, which is combined with a short documentary from 1990 in which Baron went back to all the locations used in Blast of Silence and reminisced; Polaroid photos from the set that look like lost Weegee photographs; a loving essay by critic Terrence Rafferty; and more. But the movie doesn't need any of this to make its mark--it's an American classic, as crucial to the launch of independent film as Cassavetes. Highly recommended. --Bret Fetzer
|
|
|
Blast of Silence - Criterion Collection
If you like this DVD movie, check out these items!
|
|
User Comments About Blast of Silence - Criterion Collection
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We are encouraged to experience the protagonist's(Baron)isolation as a cry of anguish in the newly evolving mediocraty of consumerism. Noir.
The beautifully modulated voice over, delivered by the (exiled) Lionel Stander allows the photography to dissolve the relationship between narrative and emotional resonance. In this sense Baron creates a world just as Jean-Pierre Melville does, a cinema of essentials, a cinema stripped bare of the illusory fullness of imaginary space.
Criterion have dealt us the perfect blackjack hand with Alan Baron's 'Blast Of Silence', a jack of diamonds and an ace of spades, at once cold and dark, sharp and velvet edged. The film takes from Aldrich and Fuller and sifts its existential themes through a Godardian disdain for continuity.
This hit man exists only when he is in the game, his search for solace, for love, for affection are always already doomed, just as he is, to take it in the back, him and Jean-Paul Belmondo, falling forever into the projectors smoke filtered light. He prowls the night illuminated by the shrill lights of department stores, lurking in the false havens of bars and the kind of New York apartments that only exist in movies.
The world of 'Blast Of Silence' is the world of actions not motives.
|
|
Raw. Minimalist. Existential. Noir.
|
|
|
|
|
|
location in NYC and feels more like a black-and-white. arranges to get a gun from his connection and has to kill. to a French noir than an American one. There's a bit of sadness in his. time (no pun intended) while waiting to do the job. He's like a more restrained.
By the end of BLAST OF SILENCE, you do feel sorry for. Christmas time and that depresses this professional killer. Blast of Silence is a low-budget crime drama that's closer. version of Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver except there is no. It was shot on. doubt as to what side of the law he is on (I still think Bickle.
reluctantly goes to a Christmas party. He bumps into an old friend from that orphanage and. He. It's a character study with an uncomplicated plot: A hitman. who grew up in an orphanage and has limited social skills.
comes to NYC from Chicago in order to make a hit. both figuratively and literally. It's. the hit-man, however. documentary than a movie. misanthropy and you will not soon forget this film.
He's an outsider. is a good guy though my wife thinks he's crazy).
|
|
My first walk on the wild side!
|
|
|
|
|
|
It was a great discovery that echoes down to this day. I had never seen anything like it and tried to get my buddies to see it. I saw this movie when it was first released. I loved it. They felt the same way I had at first."This movie can't be any good, there's nobody famous in it". It taught me that there was a whole world of films out there that I hadn't been aware of. The film is probably about a 3 1/2 but I'll give it four for the life lesson it taught.
|
|
A Classic Film Noir Finally Restored
|
|
|
|
|
|
For decades, it's been difficult to find. Highly recommended. Allen Baron's BLAST OF SILENCE is a one-of-a-kind noir masterpiece. Luckily for us, Criterion has recently released it on DVD, and true to form, they've restored it to perfect condition. For lovers of independent New York films, cult movies, crime flicks, and anyone who loves good cinema, this is essential viewing. The special features are indeed special, and add to a deeper appreciation of an overlooked classic.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home
Bookmark This Page
View Cart
